Brown Lips: They're Baaack

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Le Métier de Beauté 'Cashmere'

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MAC 'Yash'

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Napoleon Perdis 'Lauren'

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Maybelline 'Crazy For Coffee'

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Riri MAC 'Nude'

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Face Stockholm 'Cranberry Veil'

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Le Métier de Beauté 'Cashmere'

Mac 1

MAC 'Yash'

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Napoleon Perdis 'Lauren'

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Maybelline 'Crazy For Coffee'

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Riri MAC 'Nude'

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Face Stockholm 'Cranberry Veil'

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We’ve had our fun walking around like veritable billboards in support of logomania, tying flannel shirts around our waists, scuffing around in the ugliest shoes we can find, working the party circuit in next-to-nothing slip dresses, and swooshing My-So-Called-Life red hair like Elnett's being discontinued. And now we embrace the future of ‘90s redux: light brown lipstick.

All apologies to Garance, Julia, Camilla, Tom, Poppy, and Victoire, but for the moment, shades of mud are kicking your little bold red lip's metaphorical ass. A brown lip is healthy and mellow and not trying too hard, but still just as pulled-together as its crimson counterparts. Le Métier de Beauté's new Hydra-Crème Lipstick in Cashmere makes us feel like we're backstage at a Todd Oldham show—where Kevyn Aucoin is applying the shade to Naomi, Kate, and Shalom right before Todd sends them down the runway, saying (if Bret Easton Ellis is to be trusted), “Big smiles and be proud of who you are!”

Not since Céline's choker revival have we felt lust like this, and so we follow it through with MAC’s Claudia Schiffer-esque, tawny Yash; Napoleon Perdis’s Cindy-Crawford-circa- House-of-Style burnt sienna Lauren; Maybelline’s Liv-Tyler-in- Empire-Records dusty rose Crazy for Coffee; RiRi Hearts MAC's so-ugly-it's-pretty, dark greige Nude (like we needed further proof that Rihanna knows lipstick); and the Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy-approved tawny red Cranberry Veil from Face Stockholm.

Wearing a brown lip is easy: just pair with your favorite Pulp single, zip up your Calvins, pull a shrunken white Gap crewneck over your head, and go meet the mope rocker of your dreams for a diet Arizona Iced Tea.

Photos by Mathea Millman.